President of the Republic of South Africa

“ Whenever the office of State President is vacant or the State President is for any reason unable to perform the duties of his office, the Vice State President shall serve as Acting State President, and if the office of Vice State President is vacant or the holder of that office is unable to act, the Speaker of the House of Assembly or, if his office is vacant or he is unable to act, a person appointed by the Executive Council shall serve as Acting State President. ”

“ We are both humbled and elevated by the honour and privilege that you, the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as the first President of a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa to lead our country out of the valley of darkness.
We understand it, still, that there is no easy road to freedom.
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success. ”

“ Even President Brand, of the Orange Free State, referring to Lord Carnarvon's pet idea of a federated South Africa, said: "His great scheme is a united South Africa under the British Flag. He dreams of it and so do I; but under the flag of South Africa." Much in the same strain President Burgers, of the Transvaal Republic, when addressing a meeting of his countrymen in Holland, said: "In that far-off country the inhabitants dream of a future in which the people of Holland will recover their former greatness." ”

“ The president of the South African Republic, with all his uncouthness, is an extremely astute person, and the line taken by the Boer deputies at Pretoria has probably been forced upon him. It cannot he doubted that the death of President Brand will strengthen the hands of the retrograde party in the Transvaal, who will now look for support to the section in the Free State which was kept in order by his personal influence. The Dutch farmers in South Africa, especially those who live far from the coast, are as a body opposed to railways. ”

“ Sir Theophilus Shepstone was sent by the English government to report on the condition of affairs in the Transvaal. He came to the conclusion that the continued existence of the republic was dangerous to the welfare of ‘her majesty's subjects and possessions in South Africa,’ and in virtue of the power given to him formally annexed the state in April 1877. No resistance to this measure was made by the Boers. The president, Mr. Burgers, ordered the people to be loyal to their new ruler, and directed the state secretary to hand over the keys of the government offices to Sir Theophilus Shepstone. ”

“ The love of local independence is strong in South Africa, but might be deferred to and appeased, as is being done in Australia, by appropriate constitutional provisions. So far, no fatal obstacle stands in the way; but a difficulty has been thought to arise from the fact that whereas Cape Colony, Natal, and the other British territories are part of the dominions of the British Crown, the Orange Free State is an independent Republic, and the Transvaal may be so when federation becomes a practical issue. ”

“ King's dream, to joining President Mandela as he works to renew South Africa, to standing with President Havel as he promotes prosperity in the Czech Republic-to championing the cause of human dignity for people everywhere on Earth. Freedom is the ability to reach out and the responsibility to help build. ”

“ The constitution creates for South Africa a union entirely different from that of the provinces of Canada or the States of the American Republic. The government is not federal, but unitary. The provinces become areas of local governments, with local elected councils to administer them, but the South-African Parliament reigns supreme. It is to know nothing of the nice division of jurisdiction set up by the American constitution and by the British North America Act. ”

“ In the history of South Africa the figure of the grim old President will loom large and striking—picturesque, as the figure of one who by his character and will made and held his people; magnificent, as one who in the face of the blackest fortune never wavered from his aim or faltered in his effort ”

“ If he could be the successor of his friend, Sir John Brand, it would be a happy arrangement for South Africa. The president's death at the present moment seems to be an almost irreparable misfortune; but there are not wanting men devoted to the British empire, who in the past worked with him, and who are ready to persevere in working for the principle which he laid down in a letter to the administrator of the Cape on the eve of the disasters of 1881, "To promote good-will and the cordial co-operation of all parts of South Africa for the general welfare." ”

“ In the two decades since the release of Madiba, our country has changed fundamentally. President Mandela united this country behind the goal of a non-sexist, non-racial, democratic and prosperous South Africa. As we celebrate Madiba’s release today, let us recommit ourselves to building a better future for all South Africans, black and white. Let us pursue the ideal for which Madiba has fought his entire life – the ideal of a democratic and free society, in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. ”

“ Never was such glorious unity of purpose, of opinion and feeling, seen in South Africa. From the Cape to the Zambesi the holy spirit of patriotism and unity was awakened and displayed in beautiful colours of fellow feeling and love of country and people. Never was truer word spoken than when a man of position exclaimed in Pretoria, on receipt of the news of Jameson’s defeat: ‘To-day the nation of South Africa is reborn.’ Afrikander national feeling was reborn indeed, never to die again. The most bitter political opponents of President Kruger in the country became his most staunch supporters. ”

“ I should like to have said a word about the dynamite monopoly, but I fear I have already exhausted your patience. My sole object in writing is to preserve the peace of South Africa. There are, of course, many unreasonable demands; but the President's position will be strengthened, and, at all events, his conscience will be clear in case of war, if he has done everything that can reasonably be expected from him. I feel sure that, having used your influence to bring him and Sir Alfred together, you will also do your best to make your efforts in favour of peace successful. ”

“ We neither desire to be a united British colony, nor a united South African 129 Empire. We wish to be a united South African Republic. Such were Steve’s thoughts on the matter. But everything seemed to be tending towards a crisis. He felt that the time was not far distant when it would be decided whether a great new nation would be formed in South Africa by the fusion of the races, or whether South Africa would be put down, and kept down as a vassal state, for, perhaps, another decade, or maybe two decades. ”

“ Try and persuade President Krüger to confer a benefit on the whole of South Africa by granting a broad measure of reform, and you will have done the best day's work any statesman ever did in South Africa. ”

“ He seemed to see in imagination the future he was describing.
‘You have made out a very good case for your people as a nation, Steve, but what will you do with all the Englishmen in South Africa if it should become an Afrikander republic, as you seem to wish and hope? Will you drive them out of the country, or will you let them live an Uitlander race for ever here, as this Government is doing now? Will you exclude them from your future great South African nation?’
‘Decidedly not. We should be only too pleased to have them unite with us. ”

“ It was such cant that enabled the Boers to carry on the war of independence against mighty England to a successful issue. It was such cant that brought the elaborate plots of Rhodes, Jameson and the Johannesburg revolutionists to utter failure. It will be such cant that will make South Africa a free and united Republic, in which all the races of the world shall live free and united! ”

“ A flourishing South Africa involved in the rest of the world is in our interest.
President Mandela was right the other day when he called the transformation of his country an achievement of all humanity. The kind of peaceful development we're seeing in South Africa will inspire progress all around the world. Now South Africa is a model for building the open, tolerant societies that share our values. ”

“ To save England in spite of herself; to keep South Africa a part of the Empire in spite of ignorance at home, in the teeth of an armed Republic and an Afrikander ministry, required not merely an iron will and mastership in statecraft, but a reasoned and unfaltering belief in the justice of the British cause. ”

“ In spite of all its hypocritical accusations, the British Government is perfectly well aware that, notwithstanding the unparalleled difficulties with which the Government and the Legislature have had to contend, the administration of the South African Republic is on a sound basis, and can, indeed, be favourably compared with that of other countries in a similar position. ”

“ We will intensify efforts to promote the interests of South Africa globally. We will support efforts to speed up the political and economic integration of the SADC region, and promote intra-regional trade and investment. South Africa continues to play a leading role in continental efforts to strengthen the African Union and its organs, and to work for unity. We will focus energy on revitalising the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, as a strategy for economic development on the continent. ”

“ Do you think it unjust that that little Republic down in South Africa whose gallant resistance to being subjected to any outside authority at all we admired for so many months and whose fortunes we followed with such interest, should have a speaking part? ”

“ Efficiency should be insisted on as the test for appointment in the public service. Salaries on an adequate scale should be given, bearing in mind the standard of payment usually obtaining in gold-bearing districts. The obstacles in the way of making efficiency the test of appointment should be clearly understood, and as far as possible guarded against; the persistence of Young Afrikander Separatist ideals, and the readiness of the propagandists to accept office under the Imperial Government; the danger of undue weight being given to the influence of the great capitalists ”

“ It’s also fitting because South Africa’s struggle for freedom, and the courage and sacrifices of those who led it, continues to inspire people around the world. We know that in your nation, like ours, the long walk to freedom is unfinished. ”

“ If South Africa is to stay in the Empire it will have to be because the Empire will be made such that neither South Africa nor any other of the dominions would wish to leave it. For this, much has already been done. The liberation of the Transvaal and Orange River from the thraldom of their Crown Colony Government, and the frank acceptance of the Union Constitution by the British Government are the first steps in this direction. Meantime that future of South Africa, as of all the Empire, lies behind a veil. ”

“ Let us stand manfully by one another. The danger has not yet disappeared; on the contrary, never has the necessity for a policy of a Colonial and Republican Union been greater; now the psychological moment has arrived; now our people have awakened all over South Africa; a new glow illuminates our hearts; let us now lay the foundation stone of a real United South Africa on the soil of a pure and all-comprehensive national sentiment. ”

“ The practical results of American influence in South Africa may now be observed only in the increasing exports to that country, but perhaps in another generation a greater and better demonstration will be found in a constitution which unites all the South African states under one independent government. ”